How 'bout Some Low Adventure?

[SSScout]

Much discussion about "High Adventure"..... Seven day treks on the Pacific Rim trail, Philmont, Northern Tier, White Water raft down the Youghihenny (sp?), all that stuff.

What do your Scouts do for Low Adventure? Overnight on the USS Constellation? Movie nights? Bowling? Ten miles on a Saturday Morning? Fifty miles biking?

[qwazse]

A lot of dads like the old winter cabin camp with the trash can Turkeys. I bring plenty of sleds so the boys can build runs through the woods.

 

But my favorite was a tent camp on a friend's property. We borrowed a little electricity and I brought a video projector and antenna and a scout set up a screen and a pop-up to cover the equipment and we watched a Steelers v. Raven's playoff game. It was like being in the stadium except if the fit took you, you could go off and build a snowman or get wood for the fire.

 

The most musing? The set-up scout, who was a techie of sorts, was astounded that I could pull an image out of the "ether" without patching into the cable box!

[LeCastor]

In my Troop in Norcross, GA we had an annual tradition of going somewhere (it's been almost 25 years) and having an epic game of capture the flag. Each Patrol had a flag that they hid in the cavernous red GA clay maze that was this property. Then each Patrol had to defend their flag while trying to capture the other Patrols' flags. We each had socks filled with white flour as "weapons". Yeah, that was very inexpensive "low adventure". Imagine boys running around in the woods having fun....

[RememberSchiff]

camporees

[resqman]

We have done a mixture of low/medium on the same campout.

 

The troop went to a state park with trails and campsites. Friday nite everyone camped at the large group campsite. Sat morn, the Philmont crew packed up and backpacked all day to a new campsite, spent the nite and backpacked back to the parking lot the following morning. They did about 15-20 miles of backpacking and backpack cooking. They planned their meals to emulate Philmont. Philmont shakedown hike.

 

The rest of the troop took a day hike around the top of the mountain, set up an axe yard and taught Totn' Chip to the new scouts, did some Dutch oven cooking, had campfire with skits, etc. Sun morning got up and cooked meals, broke camp and loaded vehicles.

 

The Philmonters returned while the rest of the troop was breaking camp and loading vehicles. They had already broken their campsite, eaten and backpacked back to the main campsite while the remainder of the troop was still messing around with dirty dishes, packing up, and general getting ready to go. Kinda interesting to see the Philmont scouts so perturbed that the rest of the troop was not ready to go.

 

The adults chuckled to themselves that the scouts were now experiencing what the adults felt at the end of every troop campout. All scouts got to have a fun campout and participated at levels appropriate to their skill set.

 

[scoutergipper]

We encourage the PLC to schedule "something different" on a Troop meeting night every once in a while - bowling, swimming (although we'll work with any Scout who wants to on BSA Swim Test or other water-based advancement or Merit Badges) and the like. Our Patrols also get together and do stuff, although these aren't "Scout events."

[SSScout]

Climbing Wall outfitter, Bike hike on the C&O canal, ... Cabin Camp (in the cold snow) with board games and movie night ... hello?

[fred johnson]

I've always liked the term low adventure. I view it as the middle ground. More than a camporee or a good weekend camp. Less and cheaper than a high adventure. The big difference being any scout in the troop could attend and survive.

 

- Two night weekend canoe trips.

- Camp on edge of somewhere special with day trips in. BWCA or other preserves.

- State parks with day adventures.